Languages

Martinez excited by Kiev draw

Roberto Martinez is looking forward to tackling Dynamo Kiev with Everton in the UEFA Europa League.

Published

27 February 2015

Everton manager Roberto Martinez has revealed his excitement having drawn Dynamo Kiev in the UEFA Europa League round of 16.

The Goodison Park outfit sealed their progression with a 7-2 aggregate victory over Young Boys, and discovered their opponents for the next round at Friday's draw in Nyon.

"It's a draw that we're very excited about," Martinez said. "Dynamo Kiev are a top team in the way that they are involved in their domestic league.

"They are unbeaten, they are top of the league, ahead of teams that we know are very strong in Europe, like Shakhtar Donetsk and Dnipro.

"They've got some well-known players like [Andriy] Yarmolenko, Jeremain Lens, [Younes] Belhanda, and they play in a phenomenal facility.

"In that respect, it's what we expected - a tough team. In the draw you always prefer to play at home in the second leg and, unfortunately, that's not going to be the case, but there's nothing we can do about that.

"We'll leave it on the side. We enjoyed the excitement of following the draw, but the focus now is just on Arsenal [in the Premier League on Sunday]."

Shortly after addressing the media on Friday, UEFA announced that disciplinary proceedings would be opened against Kiev following crowd trouble at their clash with Guingamp in the last round.

Speaking before that announcement was made, Martinez said: "We'll wait for instructions. I don't think there's anything to worry about at this stage for any of our fans."